homeless at Christmas day

This time of year, with people running around like the White Rabbit and acting like the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, getting caught up in the hype and the materialism of worldly Christmas, there are some who engage in the true spirit of Christmas. The Marrazzo family will serve the homeless and needy when they spend Christmas day hosting a Christmas dinner, as they’ve been doing every Christmas.

The meal is an oasis in a desert of incessant ads and jingles, clichés that wear on the nerves. It’s good to know that beyond the surface glitter there is something noble.

Christ was born in Bethlehem to save us from sin and to show us the way – to become more like him. Jesus healed the sick and lame and helped the downtrodden, accepting them for whom they are, a creature made in the image of God.

Christmas is not just about a baby in the manger. It’s about Jesus coming to earth, being one of us, suffering like humans, being tempted but, being perfect, he had victory over sins on our behalf. It was the gift given graciously out of mercy for our fallen state.

The annual Marrazzo family Christmas meal was an act of compassion. Helping those who have nowhere to go for Christmas have the companionship of others, many of whom only see each other’s at the meals shows shares the joy and self-sacrificing love of Jesus, the reason for the season.

Like other community meals hosted by local churches in Bucks County, they are more than just a meal. Man does not live by bread alone. The meals are a place for the homeless and those in need to feel welcomed and where they can socialize with friends. It’s a place where people can be kept up to date with the latest news and what’s happening in their lives. Information in the homeless community is most often passed on by oral tradition, word of mouth.

In the midst of all the surface glitter and manic, worldly ways this season, we need to be reminded what Christmas is about. A Christmas poem illustrates this:

All Christmas Poetry

The True Meaning of Christmas

by Brian K. Walters

In todays day and time,

it’s easy to lose sight,

of the true meaning of Christmas

and one special night.

When we go shopping,

We say “How much will it cost?”

Then the true meaning of Christmas,

Somehow becomes lost.

Amidst the tinsel, glitter

And ribbons of gold,

We forget about the child,

born on a night so cold.

The children look for Santa

In his big, red sleigh

Never thinking of the baby

Whose bed was made of hay.

In reality when we look into the night sky,

We don’t see a sleigh

But a star, burning bright and high.

A faithful reminder,

Of that night so long ago,

And of the child we call Jesus,

Whose love, the world would know.

This year we lost two of our sisters who have spent a season in the homeless community.Made in the image of God, we greatly valued them. “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 They have greatly touched our lives.

As one of the hosts at the last community meal at Restoration Church pleaded, “be kind to one another.”

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.”John 1:4,5

Christmas is about light, the light the apostle John wrote about where Jesus took humans out of the dark, clueless world and into His light of righteousness. The light leads us to a life centered on God and his ways. Those who follow Christ become more like him, not thinking of self but of others, putting their interests above theirs, sacrificing the way people do to provide a Christmas meal for the homeless and needy.

“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6